A silver halide photographic light-sensitive material (hereinafter referred to as a "light-sensitive material") employed for printing and plate-making applications is generally exposed and then processed employing an automatic processor comprising at least a development section, a fix section, a water wash section or stabilizing bath section and a drying section, while generally replenishing the original processing solution. In recent years, environmental protection has been a major concern and a decrease in photographic solution wastes has been demanded. One means to meet the requirements is a decrease in the replenisher amount of processing solutions.
A decrease in the replenisher amount of processing solution has been gradually realized by a component replenishing technique in which the replenisher amount is decreased and photographic performance is stabilized, and a technique in which a silver-solubilizing agent and silver-dissolving-out preventing agent are incorporated in order to prevent the formation of silver stain on film and an automatic processor caused by the increase in the concentration of dissolved-out silver.
Furthermore, when contrast-increasing agents (tetrazine, tetrazolium compounds) in a light-sensitive material are dissolved out to a processing solution, the consistency in sensitivity is degraded during a continuous processing and sludges are liable to be formed. Therefore, practices have been made so that these are immobilized in the light-sensitive material. On the other hand, these which are hardly dissolved out into a processing solution are brought into a drying step to cause frequently stain on rollers. Hence, the development for the contrast-increasing agents or contrast-increasing methods has been required which neither deteriorates photographic performances nor stains the automatic processor.